Swedish legend breaks records

After the announcement of the reunion of the band ABBA and the release of a new album, reports appeared in the press about the records set one after another by the Swedish band who kept silent for 40 years.

Reunited band ABBA releases first album of original material in 40 years

A week ago, on September 2, the musicians of the Swedish band ABBA, who split up in 1983, announced during a special broadcast on YouTube that November 5 would be the first album of original material in 40 years. It was called “Voyage,” and two songs from it, “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down,” appeared on digital platforms right during the broadcast. It was also announced that in May 2022, the show “ABBA Voyage,” for which digital avatars of ABBA members Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agneta Feltskog and Anni-Fried Lingstad were created, will begin airing in a specially built theater in London’s Olympic Park.

Ticket sales for the London shows started on September 7. Next to happy tweets like “Gave my mom a ticket to ABBA for her birthday!” online lines like “£80 for holograms? They’re thieves!” “Not holograms!” – the musicians emphatically point out in their interviews. They really want the new show to be seen as the cutting edge of technology, and a hologram is something from the distant 20th century.

In fact, people aren’t paying for a concert, but for a collective nostalgic experience in a 3,000-seat auditorium.

“Not holograms”, they are “abbatars”, as well as new ABBA songs, – only appendix to emotions, which ABBA learned to sell as well as Queen, enough to remember the success of the musical “Mamma Mia!”, the movie of the same name, its sequel and compilation “ABBA Gold” (1992), which lasted in the British chart for over a thousand weeks.

And yet people will also see a dozen live musicians accompanying the digital characters at the ABBA Arena. Among them is James Wrighton of the new-rave band Klaxons. Also in the band is Victoria Hesketh, known to the world as Little Boots. She will play keyboards and sing on backing vocals. In his post, trying hard to avoid spoilers, James Wrighton writes that the ensemble of the show “ABBA Voyage” is the best lineup he has ever played in.

While ABBA avatars were created using motion capture technology and special sensors recorded the movements and facial expressions of the four band members during digital sessions, this technology is not suitable for shows featuring artists who have passed away. Most likely, tons of images would have to be processed to make a similar spectacle with Elvis Presley or Kurt Cobain. However, the creators of “ABBA Voyage” don’t hide the fact that their technology has a lot in common with the “revival” of Tupac Shakur that has already taken place.

So the era of digital comebacks is not just around the corner, it’s already here.

And the current idols don’t shy away from virtualization either. For example, the youth heroes of Twenty One Pilots are going to show the first show of their first post-lockdown tour in the game Roblox. Almost a year earlier, Grammy winner Lil Nas X had performed there also in the presence of 33 million gamers.

The sale of tickets in ABBA Arena has just begun, but the album “Voyage” in Britain in the first three days after the announcement of its release was ordered more than 80 thousand times. This is the best indicator of Universal’s record-major on the island. In Germany, 50,000 copies were sold in pre-order, eight times the local industry average. “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down” are sure to cement themselves in the British top 10 tonight, where they fought with fresh singles by Drake and Ed Sheeran and were in sixth and eighth place respectively midweek.

But the main sensation ABBA has produced relates to today’s most effective reality medium, TikTok. The band launched its social media account on Aug. 30, and as of Sept. 9, it had 1.8 million subscribers and videos totaling 13.6 million likes. It’s only been a week. And we’re talking about a band that hasn’t released new music in 40 years.

It is worth noting, by the way, that the authors of ABBA music Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus play this game honestly. They announce challanges for their subscribers and take part in creating videos with young musicians, singing ABBA hits with them and discussing stage costumes.

In a recent interview, Benny Andersson said that one of the great things about being in ABBA is that they get to keep their focus on money and keep writing music. They actually seem to be interested in that.